Harsha Talapaka profile photo 1 on Tal

Harsha Talapaka

Data Scientist | FDE | Machine Learning Engineer | Python • SQL • AWS | MSCS @ GWU | Data Scientist @ Holiday Channel | Open to Full Time Roles & Relocating.

Arlington

1+ year of work experience

Holiday Channel® | Holiday World
Jun 20251 yr 1 moPresent

United States

Owned an end to end calorie & nutrient prediction platform using XGBoost, engineering 40+ structured features from ingredients, cuisine, and portion signals to achieve 90% accuracy and outperform legacy baselines, enabling personalized nutrition experiences. Architected a hybrid LLM retrieval and ranking system over a 6.5M+ recipe corpus, combining embeddings with business signals to cut recommendation latency by 30% and materially improve relevance and user engagement. Led experimentation for recommendation strategies, designing A/B tests in SQL & Python to optimize CTR, dwell time, and conversions translating insights into product iterations adopted by stakeholders. Built production grade ETL and validation frameworks with anomaly detection and schema checks, ensuring high reliability real time personalization and data quality across backend services.
The George Washington University
May 20241 moMay 2024

Washington, District of Columbia, United States

Provided warm and professional assistance to event guests, ensuring clear directions and prompt support. Guided families and attendees to designated venues, managing large crowds efficiently and with care. Operated entry pass scanning stations, minimizing delays and ensuring accurate check-in processes.
Forage AI
Jan 20235 mosMay 2023

United States

Enhanced Data framework with Python based X-paths for web scraping, ensuring quality data extraction and troubleshooted issues using Selenium. Improved Data Pipelines efficiency through Python functions and Selenium, conducting Quality Assurance checks on Zyte extracted data, and utilized Zyte APIs for web scraping. Managed Debeaver, PostgreSQL databases optimized database of sizes 2M+ gaining hands on experience. Applied SQL, Excel, and Python skills to enhance data analysis. Conducted data cleaning, preprocessing, data wrangling & ensuring data integrity. Executed data analysis tasks with Excel and Python to generate actionable insights.

Harsha’s AI Stack

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hugging face
langchain
langchain
ollama
ollama
openai
openai

Education

The George Washington University

Master of Science - MS, Computer Science

The George Washington University

SIT- Symbiosis Institute of Technology

Bachelor of Technology - BTech, Electrical, Electronics and Communications Engineering

SIT- Symbiosis Institute of Technology

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Headline

Data Scientist | FDE | Machine Learning Engineer | Python • SQL • AWS | MSCS @ GWU | Data Scientist @ Holiday Channel | Open to Full Time Roles & Relocating.

About

Welcome to my bio! I am Harsha, Data Scientist and MLE with a Master's in CS and 2+ year of experience transforming complex data into business value. Whether it's optimizing supply chains, predicting financial risk, or personalizing user experiences, I build scalable Python, SQL pipelines that drive decision making. Agnostic to industry; committed to impact with hands on experience in user behavior analysis, A/B testing, and recommendation systems that improved engagement and informed product roadmap decisions. I’m known for strong cross functional collaboration, clear communication, and turning complex data into actionable insights in fast paced, high ownership environments.

Location

Arlington

AI stack

hugging face

langchain

ollama

openai

Work experience

Data Scientist at Holiday Channel® | Holiday World, Jun 2025 - Present · 1 yr 1 mo, United States, Owned an end to end calorie & nutrient prediction platform using XGBoost, engineering 40+ structured features from ingredients, cuisine, and portion signals to achieve 90% accuracy and outperform legacy baselines, enabling personalized nutrition experiences. Architected a hybrid LLM retrieval and ranking system over a 6.5M+ recipe corpus, combining embeddings with business signals to cut recommendation latency by 30% and materially improve relevance and user engagement. Led experimentation for recommendation strategies, designing A/B tests in SQL & Python to optimize CTR, dwell time, and conversions translating insights into product iterations adopted by stakeholders. Built production grade ETL and validation frameworks with anomaly detection and schema checks, ensuring high reliability real time personalization and data quality across backend services.

Student Events Assistant - I at The George Washington University, May 2024 - May 2024 · 1 mo, Washington, District of Columbia, United States, Provided warm and professional assistance to event guests, ensuring clear directions and prompt support. Guided families and attendees to designated venues, managing large crowds efficiently and with care. Operated entry pass scanning stations, minimizing delays and ensuring accurate check-in processes.

Intern, Technical QA Data at Forage AI, Jan 2023 - May 2023 · 5 mos, United States, Enhanced Data framework with Python based X-paths for web scraping, ensuring quality data extraction and troubleshooted issues using Selenium. Improved Data Pipelines efficiency through Python functions and Selenium, conducting Quality Assurance checks on Zyte extracted data, and utilized Zyte APIs for web scraping. Managed Debeaver, PostgreSQL databases optimized database of sizes 2M+ gaining hands on experience. Applied SQL, Excel, and Python skills to enhance data analysis. Conducted data cleaning, preprocessing, data wrangling & ensuring data integrity. Executed data analysis tasks with Excel and Python to generate actionable insights.

Education

Master of Science - MS, Computer Science, The George Washington University

Bachelor of Technology - BTech, Electrical, Electronics and Communications Engineering, SIT- Symbiosis Institute of Technology